Poweramp freezes/stops playback randomly on CM

[costin96]

Hello.

 

I have an annoying problem with Poweramp which seems that I can't repair it at all and it happens on all 4.4 ROMs that I have seen around on my device (it even happens on my friend's phone... with stock/official 4.4). Whenever I play music though headphones, Poweramp randomly pauses it and then freezes completly. 

 

For example, listening to music, then suddently it stops let's say for example at 2:35. It doesn't react to anything: song change, play/pause, album change, hitting the seeker to 0:00 or any other time, nothing. In rare situations, if I force close the application several times it works, BUT, after this it will just keep the phone awake and drain battery, even if the program is closed and music is not playing. I left my phone 2hours alone after this bug happened and Poweramp drained 40% of my battery. Under Settings > Battery, it clearly said that it was keeping my phone awake. Also when this bug happens, the name of the application under Settings > battery changes from Poweramp to (Unknown).

 

The only thing that works to repair this bug and the battery drain caused my Poweramp's bug is to restart my phone. And I am pretty annyoed and tired to restart it 4 times a day already cause of that bug. I have Poweramp since 2010 or 2011, and using it since then, since Android 2.3 and never had any problem...

 

Reinstalling/cleaning cache/etc doesn't work. 

 

Poweramp version + built number: v2.0.9 - built number 550.

Device: Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-i9100

Android: 4.4.2 KitKat

Custom ROM: CyanogenMod 11 (Snapshot M4, latest, released some days ago).

 

This bug happens on ALL 4.4 ROMS (all versions of CM11, all versions of SlimKat, everything with KitKat) that I tested on my and my friend's S2.

All my music is stored on an external MicroSD Card: samsung micro SDHC plus UHS-1, 32GB, Class 10

 

I am hoping that I will get some assistance for my issue. 

 

Thanks.

[maxmp]

We can't remotely guess what is that)) There is generally no such issue with CM, we test on all major CM variants, but you know, there are too many devices and new CM build each night.

http://forum.powerampapp.com/index.php?/topic/1893-how-to-report-a-bug/ (please check Catlog part).

Thanks!

 

PS recently we investigates similar case and Poweramp was "hibernated" by some green/battery saver tweak. Usually, those are the reasons.

[ShadowSkill]

This is a known problem for I9100 (yeah, our device is the only one with this bug ) running custom 4.4.x ROMs (I was running beta SlimKat, but had to downgrade to SlimBean 4.3 because of this), and affects all music players, not just Poweramp. It's a bug about mediascanner or something like that IIRC..

[Scoobydooby]

Hey guys..

 

I'm running an LG Optimus G with custom Rom 4.4.2.

 

So far I've had some trouble with glitching and pausing in tracks, but that isn't too bad of an issue..

 

What is though is that today I performed an update from Play store, and now I am finding that the player freezes. I've rebooted, and tried adjusting settings, but what I'm finding is that after I hit next track a couple times, it will switch tracks once, twice, and then just stop.. freezes and the player becomes unresponsive and music stops playing.

 

If I go into App and force stop the app and then reopen it works again until I hit next track a couple times, and then boom.. freeze.

Was totally fine before this update..

 

Anyone else experiencing this?

[joneidy]

Same issue here, was working totally fine until last update Using 4.4.2 Custom ROM in Nexus 5

[Scoobydooby]

Yknow what, I was having trouble with the rom I was running.. several weird things, so finally I just said to hell with it, and this morning I changed over to Carbon Rom for my LG OG  4.4.2.

 

After reinstalling all my stuff and I'm testing now, and it seems that its working properly again. I'm using SIO as my scheduler and Wheatley as the governor.

 

Seems like its still glitching however, so I may try playing around with the settings still, but at least now its not freezing anymore.

[katzjs]

I'm on CM 11 nightlies on a GS4 and have been having a similar problem, only with Bluetooth. I'm using the stock CM kernel and have not changed any settings for the scheduler or governor. I just reinstalled the previous version of Poweramp 2.0.9 build 539 and based on a brief test, was able to skip forwards and backwards through my playlists without any issues.

[maxmp]

Do you guys use Poweramp custom Lock screen? Also, have you reported the error (Poweramp suggests this when started next time)?

Thanks!

[katzjs]

No, I use the android lock screen. Haven't reported it yet. Would you like me to? How exactly do I do that?

[maxmp]

If Settings => Send Errors To Developer is checked (which is, by default), Poweramp will suggest to send error on next start.

 

Also, latest Poweramp builds (552+) use much higher album art resolution (if enabled, and it's enabled on FHD devices) for Android RemoteControl API (e.g. LockScreen), this perfectly OK for stock ROMs, but custom launchers/lockscreens can fail - try to disable Hi-Res Album Art and see if it helps. 

 

Thanks!

[Scoobydooby]

^Thank you for the tips.

 

I have not used the lockscreen at all, I always disable it.

 

I do have it set to download artwork though.

 

Are there settings that are better to use for Poweramp? Specific scheduler/governer? Or does this not really matter to PAmp?

[maxmp]

Unfortunately, I can't give specific recommendations on custom rom/kernels tweaks = we test on some custom ROM, but we don't tweak them further (except for specific cases, like Xprivacy).

 

At the moment, it seems that some ROMs had bug with fade out in Poweramp, but as we can see, this is fixed by later ROM updates.

 

Thanks!

[TaherSH]

The album artwork or the lockscreen didn't seem to affect this at all for me, after playing around for a bit I discovered that by turning off all forms of fade, the player worked again without stopping, crashing or freezing at all. I'm using a CM based ROM so this may be a solution to many people.

[bige]

Poweramp 2.0.9-build-552-play

LG Nexus 5 32Gb Mahdi 2.4 Android 4.4.2

App kind of hangs after I switch track forward or backward for second time. App still responds, buttons are pressing, but no music playing after this happens.

Back to normal after force stop.

Neither reboot, reinstalling helped.

Video proof of this bug http://youtu.be/-PYrEQbdIfA 

Bought via website.

[costin96]

Hello again.

 

I couldn't get a log of the crash, becasue I already found a walkthough. Although on my friend's phone is STILL broken and not working. What I do to fix it and what fixed it:

- format the external microSD card to NTFS format.

- changed settings:

Settings > Audio > Fade, crossfade and gapless: Deactivated everything under there (Auto-advance fading and manual track change fading set to No fading).

Settings > Audio > Advanced: Direct Volume - off, Music FX - on (using Viper4Android), Audio Buffer Size - auto, Audio Thread Priority - normal.

Settings > Misc > Tweaks: Deactivated "disable router output button" and then re-activated it.

 

I do not know which of those steps repaired my Poweramp, but I found a walkaround all the bugs. Currently 370hours of uptime and still no bugs due to Poweramp. If you guys want to reproduce the bug (which also seems to reproduce on another friend's Galaxy S3 with cyanogen mod 4.4) all you need to do is to put some music ordered in some folders on an micro sd (like Artist > Album > songs ( .mp3 and/or .flac ) and just shuffle through music. I bet that Poweramp will crash at sequential reading from the external SD card at a point or another, although I have no idea why.

 

I will try to activate fading functions again and see if it will work or crash again.

[bige]

551 uni seems to work fine.

[maxmp]

What happens if you set Audio => Fade, Crossfade, and Gapless => Manual Track Change Fading to No fading? Does it help?

We added shorter zero samples playing to avoid some post-fading issues on BT for 4.4.2 and that works on all 4.4.2 we have (Nexuses, Samsung and CM on S3). It fails on some CM modded ROMs, probably due to issue in audio driver, some reported that ROM update helped.

Thanks!

[bige]

What happens if you set Audio => Fade, Crossfade, and Gapless => Manual Track Change Fading to No fading? Does it help?

We added shorter zero samples playing to avoid some post-fading issues on BT for 4.4.2 and that works on all 4.4.2 we have (Nexuses, Samsung and CM on S3). It fails on some CM modded ROMs, probably due to issue in audio driver, some reported that ROM update helped.

Thanks!

Yes, it is helps. But turning off this feature is not a solution, because user want to enjoy smooth track changing.

Thanks in advance for fix)

[katzjs]

I just had the same problem even with the downgraded version. I will try TaberSH's suggestion and remove all fade. Thank you.

[maxmp]

The problem is that workaround which is needed for that specific ROM version makes it fail to work on "proper" CM and stock ROMs. This is somewhat that should be fixed by ROM devs. We're still looking in possible another workaround.

Thanks!

[costin96]

Found a good workaround for all those problems.

- deactivate fade

- install CWM Recovery (which has native NTFS support)

- format your MicroSD card to NTFS, from the recovery

- since NTFS has faster read speeds, it would be not likely to fail at sequential reading from the microSD

- since fading is off from Poweramp, it not likely to crash and stop

 

The bug is caused by the new drivers for the SDCard handling with FUSE. Phones with Exynos 4, like i9100 and n7000 are doomed to this unknown bug. The driver/hardware just literally dies and a full reboot is needed to recover it and make it work. Seems that not even developers know how to repair that bug (only affecting Exynos4 devices, only SOME of them, not all!!).

 

Here it's a fix:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=50450549&postcount=80

It basically consist in using the real driver for SDCard instead of FUSE.

Although it has drawbacks, like security breaches and app install confusion... I do not recommend it, but it's a fix.

 

Long story short. It's a KitKat bug for all Exynos4 devices. No one knows how to fix it currently. It's not Poweramp's fault. Every music player fails at reading music from MicroSD.

workaround 1. what I explained earlier.

workaround 2. put your music on internal sd card

workaround 3. flash back your 4.3.x rom. (which I am doing currently *cry*)

[Wanny]

Some things related to the issue:

 

- The lockout happens randomly: for example, yesterday I was listening for more than one hour and a half and didn't have any problems... but today, it happened after 40 mins.

- The problem appearently happens per app. When it happens on Poweramp I open Apollo (the CM player) and I can keep listening to music without restarting the phone. 

 

Phone: Samsung GS2 (i9100)

ROM: CyanFox 2.0.2 (Android 4.4.2)

[debruehe]

I am currently running CM11 (Android 4.4.2) on a Galaxy S2, have most of my music on an external SD and I'm also experiencing the freezes since CM11 M4.

 

Thanks to this thread I tried formating the card to NTFS and deactivated all fading. I started Poweramp and just let it play for itself, to see how it's behaving. The issue seemed to have gone, but after a little over 6h it froze again. 

 

If it only happens after 6h of constant playing, which I'm not likely to do, it would be fine. But since the issue isn't solved by this workaround evidently, I suspect it will randomly occur after less time, too.

[MattBear]

I have the same probleme on CM11 for Samsung Galaxy SII. As said, the Apollo player works when Poweramp fails.

 

 

[ChaundB]

ok guys ive found the fix to this issue which i have been battling with for months since kitkat came about. The issue would happen with all music players including Poweramp where at random times music playback would stop and you will have to restart your device to get it playing again. In my research what i came across had something to do with the FUSE driver used with KITKAT roms on devices which have an Exynos 4210 chipset. What i did and solved the problem is that i formated my internal and external SDCARD as exFAT. You will need to use a clockworkmod recovery and from the mounts and storage menu select Format SD Card 0 and Format SD Card 1 and select exFAT. Please note that you should do a full backup of your data first as this operation will wipe your device and you will have to reinstall the rom which was installed. Ive had CyanogenMod 11 running android 4.4.4 on my GS2 i9100 and ive not had a single audio disruption for the past 2 months, I play music every day for hours on end and not a single freeze. :-) Enjoy the fix peeps.